First European title for Russian pair Tarasova-Morozov

Sold out OSTRAVAR ARENA saw first final of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships. Pairs showed some amazing free skates and in the dramatic ending the Russian pair Jevgenia Tarasova- Vladimir Morozov confirmed their leading after the short program. The best free skate of the evening moved German Aliona Savcenkova – Bruno Massot to the second place and third were French Vanessa James – Morgan Cipres.

Five time World Champion Aliona Savchenko and her partner tried to catch up the loss from short program but they fell more than 5 points behind the title after all. „What we showed today is 100% at the moment. Our goal was to come back and skate clean and we managed to do so. I am personally very happy to come back after the injury“, said Savchenko.

If there was a confident look on her face, Vladimir Morozov was shining all happy. „ I feel like squeezed lemon, all empty, but this is a pleasant exhaustion though. We were emotional while skating and now we are very satisfied as we demonstarted good skating in both programs. Despite a tiny mistake at the end of the free skate tonight. ” Evgenia Tarasova briefly added: „Gold at the Europeans means a lot to us, we have worked a lot to win. We still believe that our great victory and gold medals are still to come, this motivates us to grow.“

Jevgenia Tarasova- Vladimir Morozov

Dramatic finals reached the pitch with the free skating of Vanessa James and Morgana Cipres. French tried, yet they were almost a point behind Tarasova-Morozov, which put them in the third place. „We have never been so happy. It was the same feeling yesterday but we needed to stay concentrated. We made each other proud,“ admited James. Her partner Morgan Ciprec agreed. “It is fantastic. This bronze medal is for sure another step in the right direction. After all, it is also the first medal for a French pair skating team in fourteen years.“

As expected, the biggest ovations did not go to the favourites who fought for the medals, but last year World junior Champions and Czech national team members Anna Duskova and Martin Bidar. Seventh after the short program they kept the position also after the free skating. “I have no words, we are happy, that we did a clear skate. That did not happen in this season yet. The stress fell off after the final pose. We tried to focus the whole skate because any inattention could cause us a mistake,“ cheered Anna Duskova. Together with Martin Bidar they reached all time personal best and gave thanks to great audience. “They were even better than in the short program. We would like to express many thanks to them. We did not think about ranking. All that was on our mind was to perform the way we have a good feeling,“ added Bidar.